Barack Obama is being politically crushed in a vise. From
above, by elite opinion about his competence. From below, by
mass anger and anxiety over unemployment. And it is too late
for him to do anything about this predicament until after
November's elections.
With the exception of core Obama
Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites
have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in
over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless
about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress,
the media, the business community or working-class voters.
This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and
anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover
the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional
leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and
lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even
some members of the Administration just beyond the inner
circle. (See Obama's
troubled first year, issue by issue.)
On Friday, after the release of the latest bleak
unemployment data — the last major jobs figures before the
midterms — Obama said, "Putting the American people back to
work, expanding opportunity, rebuilding the economic
security of the middle class is the moral and national
challenge of our time." But elites feel the President has
failed to meet that challenge and are convinced he will be
unable to do so in the remainder of his term. Moreover,
there is a growing perception that Obama's decisions are
causing harm — that businesses are being hurt by the
Administration's legislation and that economic recovery is
stalling because of the uncertainty surrounding energy
policy, health care, deficits, housing, immigration and
spending.
And that sentiment is spreading.
Many members of the general public appear deeply skeptical
of Obama's capacity to turn things around, especially, but
not exclusively, those inclined to dislike him — Tea
Partyers and John McCain voters, but also tens of millions
of middle-class Americans, including quite a few who turned
out for Obama in 2008. (See how some
Americans are facing the prospect of long-term
unemployment.)
The misery afflicting the
country has no political affiliation. Listen to the voices
from this striking TV ad for Rob Portman, the
Republican former Congressman and Bush budget director who
is running for Senate from Ohio. One woman at a Dayton
career fair says starkly, "There are no jobs." A man
announces plaintively and with obvious frustration, "I've
been looking for a job now for 13 months." Events like this
job fair are becoming the grim iconic gatherings of our
time, the breadlines for the Obama years.
Most of Obama's private (and
sometimes public) rebuttals to the voices slamming him on
all sides are justified or spot on. He did inherit a lot of
problems from the Bush Administration. He did act quickly in
the initial weeks of his Administration to stave off a
worldwide depression. His efforts at job creation have been
obstructed by Republicans (even the proposals based on
policies supported by the GOP in the past). His opponents
haven't put forth specifics of their own, nor offered
genuine compromise, while the media have allowed the right's
activists and gabbers to run wild with criticism without
furnishing legitimate alternative solutions. (See Barack
Obama's top 10 sound bites.)
But Obama has exacerbated his
political problems not just by failing to enact policies
that would have actually turned the economy around, but also
by authorizing a series of tactical moves intended to
demonize Republicans and distract from the problems at hand.
He has wasted time lambasting his foes when he should have
been putting forth his agenda in a clear, optimistic
fashion, defending the benefits of his key decisions during
the past two years (health care and the Troubled Asset
Relief Program, for example) and explaining what he would do
with a re-elected Democratic majority to spur growth. (Comment on this
story.)
Throughout the year, we have
been treated to Obama-led attacks on George W. Bush and Dick
Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Congressman Joe Barton (for his odd
apology to BP), John Boehner (for seeking the speakership —
or was it something about an ant?) and Fox News (for
everything). Suitable Democratic targets in some cases,
perhaps, but not worth the time of a busy Commander in
Chief. In the past few days, we have witnessed the spectacle
of the President himself and his top advisers wading into
allegations that Republicans are attempting to buy the
election using foreign money laundered through the Chamber
of Commerce, combining with Karl Rove and his wealthy
backers to fund a flood of negative television commercials.
Not only is this issue convoluted and far-fetched, but it
also distracts from the issues voters care about,
frustrating political insiders and alienating struggling
citizens (not that many are following such an offbeat story
line). Feinting and gibing can't obscure those job numbers.
(See the best
viral campaign ads of 2010.)
The President and Democrats have passed many significant
measures (the stimulus spending, the auto-company rescue,
the health care law and the financial regulation effort)
that someday may be seen as brave and bold, the foundation
for a better economy. Obama and his closest aides certainly
think that will happen. But the President was correct when
he said Friday, "the only piece of economic news that folks
still looking for work want to hear is, 'You're hired,'" and
that's still not occurring for too many Americans.
The politically good news for Obama is that no matter what
the outcome of the midterm elections, everything changes in
January. Republicans will have a greater obligation,
politically and morally, to help govern, rather than thwart
and badger. The President will get a chance, in his State of
the Union address and in his budget proposal, to show he is
turning the page on the political horrors of 2010 for his
party and the nation. But before then, Republicans are
almost certainly going to demonstrate that you can
beat something with nothing, especially when Americans seem
to think that the Obama Administration hasn't much to offer
either, except more of the same that isn't working.
